Unlucky
by Dark Lemonadifier
Summary: Rinoa's side of the Kingdom Hearts story, told from her and "Leon's" stories beginning after the end of KHII. Rinoa never truly disappeared...
1. Prelude

**Disclaimer** - I do not own Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Disney, or any of the characters these two have spawned.

**Warning** - Language, blood, gore, good stuff. Just hasn't happened yet. Mostly straight pairings, though some people just HAVE to be gay. Also, I'll warn that this chapter is kinda boring. But hey, it's my first fanfic, I'm allowed to be not so good yet. D: ... I hope. oo Pairings so far: Squinoa. More to come.

**Summary** - Rinoa's side of the Kingdom Hearts story, told from her and "Leon's" stories beginning after the end of KHII. Rinoa never truly disappeared, and survived much of the years of the Heartless plague. Her luck just keeps her and Squall away from eachother, yet so close without ever realizing the truth...

"Squall!" A high-pitched shriek of a horrified girl broke through the air. But the boy being called for could hardly respond to the immediate cry for help, his unique gunblade simply not slicing through the glowing eyed black masses of bug creatures leaping at him from every direction. They weren't hard to kill, really; it was just the AMOUNT of them. The things were EVERYWHERE. And they clung to him. Squall was quickly becoming infuriated, his usual calm disappearing in the midst of this situation. He saw no positive outcome to this endless battle.

The girl screaming for him shrieked again, and this time Squall could pinpoint where it had come from. The leather-clad boy raced after the sound, going down a hallway towards the Training Center of Balamb Garden. Unfortunately enough this seemed to be exactly where all of the creatures were COMING from. As he ran, more and more black creatures clung to him as though he were a magnet. They were slowing him down tremendously, and every time he sliced one it seemed to make MORE appear. Growling under his breath, Squall looked up ahead of him, seeing if the girl he was trying desperately to rescue was anywhere in sight. "Rinoa, hold on!" he called, though because of his lack of actual yelling in his life, it sounded more like a command.

Led by Rinoa's screams for help, Squall fought his way through half of the circle of the Training Center. The frightening part was that the usual beasts that attacked at random in this wing had vanished, replaced only by these... things. Not even a T-Rexaur could make it's way through these bugs. If those couldn't, then how could he possibly make it through them for much longer?

It appeared he wouldn't have to. As he sliced through another wad of darkness, he saw Rinoa nearly being swallowed by the creatures. The amount clinging to himself was NOTHING to what was attacking and clawing at her. She could barely be seen through them as it was... but as soon as he noticed her, waves more of them attacked himself, putting distanc between himself and her. The girl was struggling against the masses, but was quickly disappearing into the dark black swarm. Her face, or what small glimpses Squall could actually GET of it, looked absolutely terrified. These things they could not defeat, and she had realized that fact long before Squall let himself believe it. he still couldn't let himself believe this situation was hoipeless. Rinoa was crying and in danger, he could not ACCEPT that he couldn't fix this. So he continued in vain to fight the bug creatures.

For each single one he sliced or gunned down, a new wave appeared in it's place. This was a battle, and these things were being controlled from somewhere. They would not know the strategy to defeat him so easily otherwise, they seemed relatively stupid, though harmful, beings. But they were wearing him out, Squall did in fact have a limit. And this battle had been going on for days nonstop now. It started small, with a few of these things. They should have crushed it then. But it grew, and now it was an unstoppable army of them. Not even the leader of this entire squad of SeeD could match it's combined power, though he still fought against the truth. He'd sent most everyone else in his control into different wings to fight the same thing, though reports came through that the ones in the other areas had morphed into bigger, stronger things. Some even had tales of black creatures who's hand was as big as a normal human being. But that was the first few days of this madness. No reports came through anymore.

Squall barely even cared about his duties anymore. All he knew right now was that he had to save her, had to get to Rinoa. They'd been fighting together for awhile now, but had been separated somewhere around a halfhour earlier. And now he needed to be there for her and get her away from these things.

Rinoa was struggling with something other than the bug creatures, though what, Squall couldn't even BEGIN to wonder. With how hard it was to keep attention on her and fight at the same time, all he could notice was that something bad was happening. Something worse than a MONSTER he couldn't defeat. And then it made itself apparant just what was wrong. The dark things were, well, dark, but they were a being. They couldn't destroy EVERYthing. But then, as though they had finally reached some kind of point where there were just the right amount of them to take this world, they began to morph into darkness itself. The world had grown a dark portal-looking parasite that seemed to be EATING the Garden itself from the inside out. And it was growing larger every second, enclosing around the swarm- and Rinoa.

_ NO, dammit! _Squall thought, but said nothing. He clenched his teeth in silent worry and anger, his hope of victory falling severely as his angel began disappearing from his sight. How could he let this be happening? To the Garden, to his friends... to them? He was supposed to be LEADING these people. The others, they were all inside... he'd let them down... they couldn't have survived this. There was no way, as Squall watched the darkness grow before his eyes, that any of his friends had survived. Quistis, Zell, Selphie, even Irvine... all had to be gone by now. Those sections of the building were already dark. Squall only knew because he'd been backed out onto the balcony by the creatures, and all he could see in front of him was a mass of darkness absorbing his home, friends, and girl into itself. And now he had to stand here and watch her die. Watch her be attacked by something he couldn't protect her from... fail her... Squall made one last ditch effort to push towards her, but the creatures held him steadily in place now, even his gunblade was kept relatively motionless.

Rinoa was almost completely taken into the darkness, and she seemed to know what was going on- or at least know that she was about to die. Her screams had stopped, her fighting was to a minimum. She had no chance now to survive; she could FEEL the darkness clawing at her, dragging her down with them. Without thinking on it, the girl tore the necklace she wore always off of her neck, the one with his ring and her own, off. Slipping the bulkier of the two on quickly, Rinoa tossed the other out of the darkness bubble she was being encompassed in. If this was the end, and this was the last thing she'd ever be able to do... or give him... and he could still survive, if he didn't try to save her... then she wanted him to have it. What did she need it? She was about to become one with nothing. But still, her mind couldn't let go of the ring she'd cheated him out of in the first place that he'd just let her keep... it was too precious to her to be let go. Rinoa stopped struggling, knowing the pointlessness of doing so, though time seemed to slow down as her chain soared through the thick air.

Squall caught a glimpse of the shining metal object flying through the air towards him, and fought forward with all of the might he had left in his tired body... just enough to catch the chain with his teeth. Rinoa's ring was still attached to it, luckily enough. "Don't forget!" He heard her usually strong voice call from the darkness bubble, and in any other situation he would have loved to hear that. Rinoa, being her usual self, demanding his attention and obediance, as though she didn't already have it. This time, though, her usual confident, demanding voice was wrought with pain and fear; it didn't sound right at all to him. It made the situation even more real and horrifying than it already was.

And then, just as her face disappeared from his view for what he believed to be forever, the Heartless decided CLINGING to him wasn't much fun anymore. So they did the opposite, and sent him flying from their grasp in the opposite direction of what was once Balamb Garden, away from the center of this world... where he'd been tossed, the Heartless didn't exactly care. From somewhere far away from the dying star of a world, a dark voice muttered it's usual promise as it watched the proceedings as the world's light flickered and died out, one of a long list of worlds soon to do the same.

_This world... has been connected..._


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer** - I do not own Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Disney, or any of the characters these two have spawned.

**Warning** - Language, blood, gore, good stuff. Just hasn't happened yet. Mostly straight pairings, though some people just HAVE to be gay. Also, I'll warn that this chapter is kinda boring. But hey, it's my first fanfic, I'm allowed to be not so good yet. D: ... I hope. oo Pairings so far: Squinoa. More to come.

* * *

Some time later, Rinoa felt light headed. Which, in her mind, couldn't be right. How can dead people feel light headed? How can dead people FEEL, for that matter? And she did feel. At least... she THOUGHT she did. Rinoa felt like she was floating, drifting along in some big dark abyss that didn't altogether exist. She wasn't too far off from the truth.

Blinking her tired eyes open from their unaccounted sleep, Rinoa stared up and saw... blue. A lot of blue. In fact, there was nothing else to see EXCEPT blue. Something in her head told her not to move, or that she couldn't move... but she could guess what was under her and to the sides of her, too. Blue. It was her favorite color and all, but was THIS really necessary? Rinoa hoped this wasn't heaven. That would be SUCH a ripoff.

The brunette didn't have a clue as to how long she floated there. She realized, fairly soon, that time just didn't exist there at all. At times, it felt like five seconds had passed when hours had. And sometimes it was the opposite. It was boring, but she didn't much care... Rinoa had decided it was like a holding place, the middle ground. It couldn't be either heaven or hell, so maybe this was the in-between of both? She'd heard a minister once talk about Purgatory, on one uneventful trip to church that her family had taken, as rare as they were, when she was younger. But this didn't seem quite the same as the description... maybe it was just something she couldn't place a name to yet. Rinoa tried to keep from thinking of the possibilities of being there forever... but the thoughts kept coming back to haunt her. She was getting sick and tired of the blue by the time it finally started to fade.

After what was probably a very long time, perhaps years, her surroundings started to change. Not visibly, for that remained a blur of blue, but simply in how they FELT. All of a sudden Rinoa felt like she was getting wet. She had to close her eyes to keep the water out, and wondered if she was drowning. The weightless feeling of drifting through space was lifting slowly but surely, and she was suddenly very aware of gravity and weight and... water? Why was there STILL water? Rinoa tried to blink to see what was going on, but all she could see was darkness and water falling onto her face from above. Though really, Rinoa should have just been thrilled that there WAS some sense of above and below now... though the below was very uncomfortable. It felt like concrete, and was rocky and somewhat hard. And she was beginning to get a headache...

With sudden realization hitting her, Rinoa gasped for air. Oh, yeah. She'd forgotten the need to BREATHE. Dumb blue bubbles and it's confusing her. Apparently, as her environment showed, the blue time was over. She'd fallen from space and landed... where?

Using what little strength she felt in her, the girl pushed herself up to a sitting position. No wonder she had felt concrete; she was lying on a sidewalk. It had a yellowish tint to it, and was being hit with a downpour of rain from the heavens. So that explained the water... now how to explain where she was? Rinoa squinted, looking down both sides of the street, but the rain was too harsh to see anything. And why in the world was she so TIRED when she'd spent all that time thinking she was dead? Where was Balamb? Or her weapon? And... where was Squall? "Uggh..." Rinoa's thoughts shut themselves up when the last of them appeared in her head. She was cold, and she was soaking wet. Giving off shivers, Rinoa struggled to rise to her feet, then stumbled around a little, falling backwards from the slippery mess of water under her she'd underestimated.

Rinoa found herself encompassed in light as soon as she fell. What was behind her was not wall, as she'd presumed... it appeared to be a door, leading into a very nice room with a very not nice tiled floor. Said tile was worse than concrete when wet, and she continued to fall ungracefully backwards, grabbing aimlessly for the handle of the door. Luckily enough, the girl made contact and grabbed it as she tried to steady herself, managing to get herself stuck doing a painful impersonation of the splits. Rinoa let out a slightly relieved sigh at finally being immobile. As uncomfortable as this was, at least she had stopped slipping all over the place like a moron. Rinoa let her head fall against the side of the door, a soft thud sounding. The girl turned her head to the side to examine the room she'd fallen into.

She'd expected a back entrance to somewhere, maybe. Some sort of empty place. But from the darkness outside, she hadn't expected to have an audience staring back at her. Face reddening in embarrasment, the girl dropped back to the ground, head sliding down and leaving a nice wet mark on the door. "S-sorry." Rinoa mumbled, for once in her life not sure what to make of the situation. A shiver ran through her body, and she realized a fan must be on somewhere. Evil fan. It was ALREADY too cold and wet for those...

"Aww, look, she's cold." A deep, but kind sounding voice commented on the situation. Swerving her head to see it's owner, Rinoa saw a tall, heavily muscled man with short silver hair gelled back.

"And your point?" A slightly higher pitched, but very cold, voice spoke up. This belonged to a tall, thin silver haired boy. His hair was long and sleek, and Rinoa felt a random urge to touch it if he wasn't so annoyed looking. Both of the boys would have been quite intimidating if they hadn't been wearing aprons. The cold one even held a mop in one hand.

"Well... shouldn't we help? She looks so sad." The first voice spoke.

"I actually thought she resembled a wet dog more than an emotion."

At this response, the bigger man looked to almost pout, at which his smaller companion sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, go help her if you want. But I'M not going to be responsible when he gets back." With that, the slim boy wandered off, dragging the mop with him to clean some spill somewhere in the place. The one remaining smirked triumphantly, before turning to what was now his problem. Rinoa stared up at him in confusion, still clinging lifelessly to the door handle. The silver haired man chuckled and walked over, holding one of his hands out to her. Rinoa stared at it for a minute before letting go of her lifeline handle to reach for his hand.

Once accepted, the man smirked and helped her stand up steadily. "Are you usually this trippy or is it a new thing for you?" He laughed at his own joke, pushing her in the direction of SOMEthing in the place. Now that she could actually get a good look around, Rinoa noticed that it was something of a diner, with two areas in sight. One held booths, fancily decorated with tablecloths and unlit candles. It looked like closing time, from the lack of people. A bar separated this area off from where Rinoa was being led into. The back was a lounge area with comfy chairs, a cheap television, and a staircase leading to who knew what. Rinoa felt herself pushed into one of the chairs, and within minutes the man ahd left and returned with a blanket for her. "Warm..." She mumbled, snuggling into the warmth of the simple black cotton.

"So you DO speak." The silver one spoke, sitting in a chair across from her and tilting his head, staring with piercing green eyes that stood out from his hair and figure. "I'm Loz. You are?"

Rinoa stared for a minute with a frown, brown eyes challenging this stranger. He was the first person she'd seen since him... since before. "I'm... Rinoa. Can I ask you some questions... Loz?" She felt herself speak, finally, sounding normal. The blanket was helping the shivering stop, though she still felt wet. Loz nodded, and Rinoa sighed. "Alright. First off, where is this? Go into details please, I'm lost... I don't know what happened. This.. DARKNESS just came out of nowhere. Ate everything up, I was stuck inside... thought I was going to die since it surrounded me."

Loz looked familiar with the vague term of 'darkness' and leaned his head onto his hand. "Your world must be gone. That sounds like a description a lot of the locals give it. The darkness swallows up a world, claims it for the Heartless. I'm surprised you made it out if you were that deep into it. As to where you are...," Loz spoke, abruptly changing the subject, " You are in Mother's Kitchen, THE best damn breakfast restaurant around here." He smirked with pride.

"Actually... I meant more the TOWN... " Rinoa spoke up, noticing how stupid a question that sounded. With a raised eyebrow, Loz responded in an amused tone.

"Welcome to Radiant Garden."

Later that night, after much questioning from both sides, Rinoa awoke from her temporary bed- which was two chairs pushed together and some pillows- to hear arguing going on and nearing. Loz was begging someone to 'just listen to him for a sec' while the one she'd come to identify with the name Yazoo entered the room, ignoring Rinoa's presence. The one Loz was arguing with had a younger, teen-aged voice than the rest.

"NO, Loz, we can't just pick up some GIRL off the streets! I don't care HOW cute she is we aren't keeping her!" The voice came closer, the last line being yelled as a rather short boy entered the lounge. His frustrated green gaze fell on the girl sitting upright on his furniture, not knowing what to make of her. The feeling was mutual. This short teen looked to be the owner of this place, despite his age. He held the air that he owned the WORLD, and would decide what went on in it. "So... you're what my dimwitted brother dragged in." He spoke, staring Rinoa down. Rinoa stared right back in defiance, rising to her feet. They stared at each other for what seemed like a long time. Rinoa got the feeling she should have been intimidated and step down... maybe it was the deadly look he was giving her. The air seemed thick as he judged her, deciding for himself whether or not he'd give aid to this... lower being.

Finally, Kadaj turned away from Rinoa, breaking the connection. "... she can stay if she can work. Get her some new clothes, those blue rags are ruined. Have her up and ready to clean bright and early tomorrow. Loz, come with me. " The teen ordered, leaving the room. Loz sighed when the tension fell, smirking because he got his way. Yazoo glared and reached into his pocket, pulling out a five and dropping it into Loz's outstretched hand. "You'll lose the next bet. It's no loss to me." The prettyboy proclaimed, leaning against the wall behind him. Loz only chuckled, pocketing the cash and shaking his head. "Seeya later, Rinoa." He waved, following his younger sibling out of the room.

Rinoa stared at the one left in the room... the one who's personality she couldn't quite place in any category. Apparently, he was left to babysit her for now. He didn't look pleased with the task. "Well... come on. I'll show you your room. We can find you some clothes then." Yazoo sneered, not bothering to offer help as he walked past and headed for the stairway. Rinoa wondered just what she was getting herself into as she grabbed her blanket from the chairs and ran after the unwilling stylist...


End file.
